Lead the Way
by Hray1
Summary: Takes place early in Brennan's pregnancy. What happens when Brennan has to work a case without Booth? Let me know how you like it  read and review  !
1. Chapter 1

Lead the Way

Disclaimer: I don't own Bones (mores the pity)

"No Booth, there's no need for that. You just stay there and rest your leg…" Brennan assured as she studied the partially reconstructed skull on her desk.

On the other side of the phone conversation, Booth was stretched out glaring at his leg with the offending bright blue brace. "Bones, I know that, I'm just bored out of my mind," he groused and then paused briefly before adding, "And I want to make sure you're taking care of yourself."

With a sigh Brennan replied, "I'm fine. As soon as I finish with this skull I'm going out with Angela to lunch."

"Hey, I'm just concerned…I mean you are eating for two now." As Booth said this, a silly grin spread across his face, just like it did every time he brought up the subject of Brennan's pregnancy.

Pausing in her work she asked, "You do realize that one of us is an embryo the size of a kidney bean, right?"

"Kidney bean or not, you need to make sure you're eating enough."

With a smile she replied, "Booth, I've seen how much you think I need to eat… I'm going to develop gestational diabetes if you have your way."

As they continued their conversation Brennan pieced together the remaining bone fragments to the skull and sat studying the major structures when a figure filled her doorway.

"Are you Doctor Brennan," the suit clad man asked from the door.

Giving him an assessing stare Brennan told Booth, "I'll have to call you back."

Feeling some regret that their conversation would have to wait Booth replied, "Yeah, sure. Talk to you later."

"Ok" Brennan replied while motioning the man into her office.

He was dressed in a plain black suit similar to the one Booth wore when they first began working together.

"Dr. Brennan, I'm Special Agent Ross Capelli. I've been temporarily assigned as the Jeffersonian liaison while Agent Booth is recovering, "he explained as he stepped into the office and glanced around.

Brennan stared at him a moment, as if trying to comprehend what he was saying.

At her silence Capelli cleared his throat, "We have a case Dr. Brennan."

That caught Brennan's attention, and tamping down on her irritation that the FBI could so easily replace Booth (albeit temporarily) she told him to meet her in the front of the building in ten minutes.

The agent nodded, "Ten minutes," and left her office.

Brennan quickly packed her bag and took it out into the lab, intent on joining the agent as quickly as possible. She was waylaid when a soft growl of hunger emanated from her stomach, reminding her that she had not had lunch. Laying her bag on one of the exam tables surrounding the forensics platform, Brennan made a beeline to the break room and the yogurt she had in there.

After finishing two yogurt cups Brennan felt ready to join Capelli and headed out to do so, when she was stopped by one of her graduate student interns.

"Dr. Brennan, I was wondering if the skull reconstruction was complete, so that I can begin marking tissue depth."

Remembering her project from this morning Brennan nodded, feeling only slightly chagrined that it had slipped from her mind, "Yes, Rachael, I'll bring it to your station."

She turned and hurried across the lab, aware that she was well past the ten minutes she promised the agent.

Grabbing the skull and its tray she turned to leave the office.

As she crossed the forensics lab she was so busy studying the skull she didn't notice the approach of Agent Capelli and the two collided with a loud crash that sent the fragile skull tumbling to the floor.

From up on the forensics platform, Wendell Bray broke the ensuing silence with, "Oh my God…"

Brennan and Capelli stared down at the scattered shards of what was once the skull of a pre-bronze age adult male.

Capelli echoed Wendell's, "Oh my God…"

Brennan held up a staying hand before asking, her voice soft and frosty, "Agent Capelli, did the FBI explain what your duties to the Jeffersonian were?"

He was confused by this question, "Duties, Dr. Brennan?"

Her voice rising slightly in volume she asked, "You do realize you're here to help our work, not destroy it, right?"

The censure in her tone irked Capelli enough that he retorted, "Yeah, they told me that," and then glancing down at his watch, "they also said I was to get you to the crime scene as quickly as possible. Looks like I'm shit at both jobs today."

"Perhaps the FBI should have assigned a more proficient agent to the Jeffersonian. I'll be sure to discuss that the next time I see your director," Brennan said as she grabbed her bag from the nearby table. Then she turned to Wendell, "Mr. Bray, have Rachael recollect these fragments and then work on the tissue depth markers for the new limbo case we pulled. I'll be back later this afternoon to review your progress."

With that she walked away, leaving Capelli staring after her. When she made it to the sliding glass doors at the entrance to the lab she turned back to the agent, "Agent Capelli, I'll be waiting out front."

Once Brennan was well out of ear shot Capelli turned to Wendell, "How do you deal with her?"

Wendell chuckled softly before answering, "Dr. Brennan is the best in the field. Hundreds of people apply for each spot as an intern here. Getting to work with her is a privilege."

Scoffing he replied, "That bitch, a privilege?"

Turning serious Wendell advised the agent, "She's a perfectionist, and she expects people to do their jobs. Do your job and you'll get along fine"

"Great, twenty weeks of training at Quantico, and now I'm a glorified babysitter for a temperamental scientist," as he spoke Capelli walked across the lab to follow Brennan out.

Wendell called out across the lab, "Just remember if you don't do your job Dr. Brennan will be the least of your problems."

This warning gave Capelli pause and he turned to ask a little exasperated, "Who else do I need to worry about?"

Wendell's answer was simple, "Booth."


	2. Chapter 2

Lead the Way

A/N: Thanks to everyone who read, commented, and "alerted" this story. I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I hope this next chapter lives up to your expectations. Let me know what you think and give me suggestions on how to make it better...thanks! P.S.: I don't own Bones. :(

Chapter 2

The thirty minute drive to the crime scene was accomplished in icy silence, each person lost in their own thoughts.

The crime scene, when they arrived, was chaotic with agents and police personnel walking all around the body. Having her crime scene contaminated was not something Brennan had had to deal with for several years and so it might be said that her reaction was somewhat over the top, "Why are all those people contaminating my remains," she asked at a near shout, as she pulled on her blue jumpsuit.

Capelli looked at her in confusion, "They're investigating a murder…you know…the reason I dragged you out here?"

Stepping out of the car and into the soft mud surrounding it she pulled her bag out before replying, "I can see that. What I want to know is why you didn't order the crime scene closed until we got here?"

Brennan quickly covered the ground between the car and the body, as she got closer to the agents she shouted at them, "I need a ten foot perimeter around the body, no one closer until we survey the body."

Wordlessly the agents moved out of the way as Brennan crouched down by the body.

The abrupt change in position, combined with the rank odor of the shallow grave caused a wave of nausea to course through Brennan and for the first time in her professional career she came close to vomiting on a set of remains.

Taking deep breaths to gain her composure Brennan pulled her small recorder from her pocket.

Turning it on to record Brennan began, "Victim is supine in a shallow grave. The body appears to have been laid rather than dumped. Wide pelvic arch and mandible indicate female. Epiphyseal fusion and lack of three molar stress markers suggest late pubescent period."

As she spoke she could over hear Capelli walking up behind her, she acknowledged his presence with a glance before continuing."

"The anterior plane of the skeleton appears sound on casual inspection with no obvious signs of trauma, the dorsal aspect is no visible at this time," as she spoke she moved around the shallow grave making note of various features, "the tarsals and metatarsals show repetitive use malformation."

She glanced again at Capelli before adding, "She was a dancer. I'll know more once we get her into the lab."

As Brennan went to discuss the recovering and transportation of the body Capelli was left standing beside the grave.

As he was scribbling his impressions of the scene another young agent joined him.

"Hey Ross, heard you got picked for Jeffersonian duty. You are one lucky son of a bitch."

Capelli glanced up, "I wouldn't call it lucky."

The agent pushed him lightly on the shoulder, "Are things going that well?"

"She's being a frigid bitch."

The agent chuckled, "Do you think the rumors, about her and Booth, are true?"

"If it isn't I don't see how he puts up with her."

The two men watched as Brennan and one of the forensics techs discussed something on the other side of the grave for a moment before the other agent excused himself to continue his work.

It took Brennan and a small crew of FBI techs nearly an hour to excavate the body enough for its transportation to the Jeffersonian's lab. As four of the techs loaded the body into the FBI van Brennan lowered herself onto the ground to rest and have a long drink from her water bottle.

She asked the young woman next to her still collecting soil samples, "Would you let Agent Capelli know that I'm ready to go back to the lab?"

"Sure Dr. Brennan," she replied and then asked noticing the pallor of the doctor's face, "are you ok?"

It had been a few hours since those yogurts and she was beginning to feel woozy, "No I'm fine. It's just the end of a long day."

Still carrying a look of concern the tech mumbled some agreeable response before leaving to tell Agent Capelli.

She found him still interviewing one of the teens who had found the body.

"Agent Capelli?"

He seemed aggravated by the interruption, "Yes?"

"Dr. Brennan says she's ready to return to the lab."

Capelli glanced to where Brennan was seated and then said, "Well she's just going to have to wait for a minute."

"Yes sir," came the meek reply.

The tech returned to where Brennan was seat and her soil samples were, relaying the message.

Brennan gathered the last of her tools and placed them in her bag before finding a seat under a large hardwood tree.

She pulled out her phone and saw two messages from Booth on the phone.

The first read, "_Text me when you're leaving_"

And the second being,"_Have you left yet_?"

The second message had been sent only ten minutes ago.

She replied "_Not yet, still at crime scene_."

As soon as she sent that reply she knew it was the wrong thing to have said.

"You went to a crime scene without telling me?"

"Yes?"

Instead of a text message her phone began chirping signaling an incoming call, she didn't even need to look to see who it was.

"Bones, I thought we'd talked about this…" Booth's voice was laced with concern and irritation.

"We did, but I didn't think we'd set anything in stone. What was I supposed to say?"

"That you're pregnant and have no business out of the lab" Booth replied, his voice rising slightly.

Brennan replied with a tired sigh, "Booth you know that's not how this works."

"I know, I'm just concerned about you baby."

From across the field she should hear Capelli call out to her, "Dr. Brennan lets go!"

"Hey Booth, we're heading back to the lab now. We'll talk about this when I get home ok?"

It was Booth's turn to sigh then, "Ok. What do you want for dinner?"

With a laugh Brennan asked, "Are you going to cook for me on crutches?"

Booth glared at the crutches he'd been forced to use, "No, I'm going to order delivery."

She thought about that for a moment before deciding, "Red Panda sounds great."

Just then the conversation was interrupted with the insistent, "Dr. Brennan get the lead out."

"Booth got to go. See you later." With that said she hung up and reached for her bag.

Standing up proved to be more challenging than she would have thought, the world took a rather sickening swirling dervish causing her to stumble forward nearly falling to her knees. This uncharacteristic clumsiness caused no fewer than three FBI techs to lunge forward in an attempt to catch her.

Assuring them she was fine she quickly made her way to the car and into the passenger seat.

Brennan was asleep before they had even reached the highway and slept soundly the entire drive back to the Jeffersonian, in fact she was so deep in slumber, Capelli had to shake her awake when they arrived at the parking garage.

Sitting up with a start, Brennan was momentarily disoriented.

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, and feeling more than a little embarrassed to have slept the entire trip home she told Capelli she would have a preliminary report of her findings ready by tomorrow afternoon.

Capelli shook his head in the affirmative and told her that would be fine.

Brennan pulled the car keys from her bag and headed to her car, feeling more tired than she could remember being in some time.

Most of the other cars were gone from the lot, so she figured her interns had already left for the day and so didn't bother going into the building to check on them…she would get a report in the morning.

The drive home was made quicker since she had begun staying at Booth's apartment and so she made it with little difficulty.

The front door to Booth's apartment was unlocked as it always was and when she came in, the pungent aroma of mu shu tofu and stir fried rice welcomed her. Brennan hadn't realized how hungry she was until she smelled those and then a ravenous hunger assailed her.

Calling out to the apartment at large, "That smells wonderful."

There was a laugh from the kitchen, "I know it's been killing me to not eat this while I waited."

Brennan rounded the corner and entered the kitchen and found Booth already seated at the table with the food laid out on the table.

Letting her bag slide to the floor next to the table Brennan took to other seat and eagerly grabbed the mu shu box.

Brennan had finished off the entire box before noticing that Booth was watching her with ill-concealed concern.

"So what did you have for lunch today?"

Brennan knew where this conversation was going to go, "We had a case so I grabbed a couple of yogurts on the way out."

Booth sat the box of rice down before saying, "So that's all you've had all day?"

Feeling chagrined and a little bit defensive Brennan argued, "No, I had crackers for breakfast and then I just ate the mu shu."

Booth's eyes darkened, "Bones don't play dumb. You ate those crackers at two this morning. Are you telling me that you went into the field without eating today?"

"Booth I had the yogurt, it's all I wanted."

"Bones, honey, you can't do that. You have to eat better," he nearly shouted, and then added as an afterthought, " and what agent let you into the field without taking a break!"

Brennan sat back, her eyes turning cold at the mention of Capelli, " I don't think he would have cared. Besides he's not my keeper"

Booth leaned forward his voice quiet and filled with no small amount of menace, "Well he's going to care when I'm through with him…"

**What did you think? Is angry Booth not the sexiest thing alive (Ok isn't any Booth the sexiest thing alive?)?**


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